Taking an holistic approach

Some of the issues facing the world today - famine, extinction of species, pollution, global warming, poverty and war, to name but a few - are so profound and their implications so far-reaching for future generations that to contemplate them leaves the mind in a state of bewilderment and confusion.

For example, how can it be that the earth produces far more food than is required to feed its population, yet hundreds of million of people are still underfed while elsewhere morbid obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, and its victims are suing the fast food chains for millions of dollars for failing to warn them of the dangers of a high-fat diet?

And how can it be that with all the vast medical knowledge available and the quantum advances in therapeutics occurring almost daily, people in the developing world are still dying from diseases that have been eradicated in the more affluent parts of the world?

Faced with such paradoxes, it is only human nature to seek to apportion blame - if not for the cause then for the failure to find a solution.

In the case of the AIDS/HIV epidemic in Africa and parts of Asia, much opprobrium has been directed at the global drug companies. To those trying to stem the spread of this as yet incurable condition and dealing with the consequences, it must seem as though big pharma is not doing as much as it could to help prolong the lives of those infected and ease their plight.

But to blame corporate greed for the failure to treat adequately the victims of the AIDS epidemic in the developing world is as absurd as blaming a snowball for causing an avalanche or a wall of sandbags for not holding back the Danube.

Simply throwing drugs at the problem or creating a more equitable

pricing structure is not the answer. It may, of course, salve a few consciences and help to deflect public criticism. But ultimately it is doing no more than treating the symptoms of the problem rather than the underlying cause.

To make a real difference will require a high level of commitment from governments in both the developed and the developing world - commitment to education, political stability, economic development, debt relief and establishing a comprehensive infrastructure.

Without this commitment, any action the drug companies may take can never be more than a drop in the ocean of human suffering.